Saturday, March 5, 2016

The British School Of Manila celebrated its multiculturalism through its recent International Evening activity dubbed as “A Taste of our Cultures”.

It was indeed a grand celebration, from the delicious food around the world, to students and parents' beautiful production numbers and the spectacular Parade of Nations. Hundreds of performers have been rehearsing since January to provide the guests with spectacular entertainment. It was truly amazing. The Marching Band, Majorettes and Festive Higantes were really show stoppers, making the event last February 23rd the best yet of the BSM community.

1,600 people attended the biggest fund-raising event in the Service Learning calendar, and sold over 3,700 raffle tickets hoping to reach the fund-raising target of one million Pesos.
The overwhelming generosity and willingness of everyone to pitch in made it such a great night for BSM community and BSM is extremely grateful to everyone who attended International Evening .

Delectable Options from the Food Stalls

The quality and sheer variety of food at The Food Stalls was amazing.
They had larger food stalls, catering for hundreds of guests, and boutique food stalls with niche products. A great combination, with something for everyone to indulge in.

The lamb rolls and sausage sizzles at the Australia and New Zealand booth were a huge hit, as was the deliciously authentic Thai food, elegantly served by the Dusit Thani.

The “Birthday Tea for a Queen” at the British Stall was a treat, with sandwiches, pies and sausage rolls alongside sweet bites including Victoria Sponge, Lemon Drizzle and Carrot cakes.

The Japanese stall offered beautiful sushi, ramen and takoyaki with their ever popular California Rolls. And even before the Indian stall could open, families were queuing up for their veg and non-veg dishes, including chicken makhanwala, mutton keema, samosas, dhal makhani and dosas.

China put on a feast of dumplings, pork buns, spring rolls, gyoza, ki-kiam, shrimp rolls and boba milk tea, which proved very popular with their students.

Spain brought their traditional paella to the party, with a huge tapas selection, including chorizo, gambas, croquettas, tortilla and delicious sangria.

The buffalo wings of the USA ran out early, as did their cookies and Hershey chocolates.

Traditional German treats including bratwurst, sauerkraut, potato salad and homemade pretzels were a welcome addition, as was the bacon and cabbage, smoked salmon, cheddar, Irish coffee mousse and Irish tipples at the Irish booth.

The Middle East and North Africa served up delicious dips, including hummus and zaalook with pita, France and Switzerland gave us raclette among other delicacies, Scandinavia treated us to meatballs, canapes, cake and traditional Schnapps, and even Italy was represented with a stall run by San Remo, serving pasta dishes to suit every taste.

And last but by no means least, the beautifully lit Filipino booth gave a treat from every corner of the Philippines. Roasted lechon, a Lumpia bar, Inihaw bar, salmon belly, noodles, pork bbq, pancit canton, pancit ivatan, dirty ice cream, Filipino desserts as well as buko juice!

Laudable Performances

The dance performances on the night truly showed the diversity, and the talents of the BSM community.

From individual performers singing the Philippine and British National Anthems, dancing the Flamenco and covering Ed Sheeran; to large scale group dances, including the Indian musical medley, which spanned dances from the whole country and from the very classical to a disco-themed Bollywood number that the guests enjoyed every moment.

There were also story telling of the Chinese Zodiac, a traditional German folk dance called Schuhplattler and a funky hip hop number from the primary students.

The Haka was a real highlight of the evening, performed by a group of BSM students and boys from the Tuloy Foundation, as were the ballet numbers.

The traditional ballet show, with dances from Russia, Spain, Hungary, Germany, America and Vienna, as well as a fantastic performance of “Swan Lake” and “Chariots of Fire” by a few of our Rugby Team were enjoyable.

Pink tutus and varsity attire have never joined together to provide so much enjoyment to so many.

A Night of Winners

The British Food Stall helped to bring the “British Bake Off” fun to their community event, with a competition for the best cake baked by teachers and students.
A delicious chocolate cake took the crown for the adult cake and two of our Primary students shared the prize for their trifle and cupcakes.

The Parade of Nations also provided the perfect opportunity to reward creativity.
The costume competition gave the judges a tough task, but the 5 lucky winners this year, had beautiful outfits from their home countries of UK, Germany, Korea, South Africa and Russia.

A few visitors to the event were lucky enough winners of gift certificates for stays in some of the most beautiful parts of the Philippines, including Atmosphere Hotel & Spa in Dumaguete, Dedon Island Resort in Siargao, Bamboo Private Island in Palawan, Nobu Hotel at City of Dreams, Rieseling Boracay Beach Resort, Coco Grove in Siquijor, Coco Beach in Puerto Galera, The District Boracay, Busuanga Bay Lodge in Coron and Buri Resort & Spa in Puerto Galera. Top prizes included roundtrip flights to Guam on Cebu Pacific, an overnight package at The Farm at San Benito and free dining at Cafe Curieux, The Peninsula Hotel and Fairmont Makati accommodations were among the other amazing prizes.

BSM Community does it again

Of course, none of this could have happened without the truly amazing Operations staff who worked almost through the night, and the rest of the support staff, teachers, parents and students who gave their time willingly to become Bakers, Food stall helpers, Bar Staff, Raffle ticket sellers, Parade helpers, Entry ticket staff, KidZone supervisors, and help the rest of the community enjoy themselves, while raising huge sums of money for Service Learning.

A few individuals took on such large roles, they were almost given staff passes.
These amazing BSM parents made the Parade of Nations such an amazing spectacle; kept track of everything to do with the Food Stalls, ensured the event looked beautiful, and ran the ever-popular PTA bar.

Generous Sponsors who made it happen

Finalay, BSM lauds the huge number of its generous sponsors, who provided money, prizes and food, and helped to make sure that as much of the money raised on the night goes straight into the Service Learning Fund, and helping the Service Partners that they work with.

Where the money goes

All of the money raised goes towards supporting BSM Service Partners.

The BSM International Evening in March 2015 raised an amazing 605,000 pesos.
With the proceeds, BSM was able to fund its work with a variety of Charity Service Partners, including:

¤ PCF, a charity providing education, food aid, fair employment and health care to the poorest adults and children in and around Manila. BSM worked with PCF throughout 2015 (50,000 Pesos)

⦁¤ Financial and in-kind support to Makabata Schools Foundation, in Pasig. The school provides formal and non-formal (basic skills) education for street children and out-of-school youth (50,000 Pesos)

⦁¤ The Fairplay for All Foundation, a charity working in Payatas, the largest dumpsite in the Philippines and home to half a million people. Their main projects include a drop-in centre, Payatas Football Club and the Fairplay cafe (10,000 Pesos).

¤⦁ Stepping Stones Foundation, a school and learning environment for children and young adults with disabilities and learning difficulties. Year 10 students renovated the garden, and painted classrooms in their new facility (20,000 Pesos)

¤⦁ School bags for disadvantaged children living in Panay Island, Visayas (40,000 Pesos)

¤ Financial and in-kind support (including the purchase of a projector) for Kids International Ministries, a charity that is based in Manila, but has a number of programmes across the Philippines, providing food, shelter, education and medical attention to at-risk children in indigent communities (40,000 Pesos)

¤ Building materials, expertise and manual labour for Tagaytay Central Elementary School during CAS week in May 2015. All Year 12 IB students traveled to Tagaytay, and spent 3 days working at the school to improve the teaching and learning environment (305,000 Pesos)

This year, with the fund-raising target of one million Pesos, BSM hopes to be able to make even more of a difference to the communities around with this amount.

Do visit their website at
www.britishschoolmanila.org or follow BSM on twitter
www.twitter.com/bsm_1976 for updates.

Friday, March 4, 2016

The big day has finally arrived! ICDC finalists and cake enthusiast trooped to SM The Block to witness the 10th Goldilocks Cake Deco Challenge activity.

Since the 10th year of the ICDC, coincides with the 50th anniversary of Goldilocks, they've added some major twizts this year’s lCDC Xtreme competition.
Ten schools showed off their killer cake decorating skills for a chance to last February 25, 2016.
It was a whole day of fun at SM North Edsa. Each team was given a working station with a supply bin of decorative materials so that each group has everything in it for cake decorating.
The theme details were only revealed to the finalists the minute the contest began.

A panel of judges from culinary arts industry
(Penk Ching, Heny Sison, Millie Dizon, Carol San Pedro, and Cara Wu) rated the cakes set on the workstations. They walked all the way around each cake and looked at it from every angle.
Competing teams came up with cakes designs that are simple, sculpted, or classic with a lot of piping or stringwork that fits the theme given to them.

The best showcake team entries in each Category (50th Birthday, 50 Wedding Anniversary, 2050 "Future" cake, Gold cake and the Number 50 cake) were then recognized after their scores were tallied.

And the 10th Goldilocks Cake Deco Challenge Grand Champion was Saint Anne College of Lucena!
Their team had mastered and combined many techniques into cohesive designs required in the competition. Their hardwork under mentorship of Chef James Antolin paid off.

Saint Anne College of Lucena received a baking showcase worth a quarter of a million pesos. The winning team received P20,000 in Goldilocks gift certificates during the awards ceremony.

Thursday, March 3, 2016

Every parent aims to give his child a good college education. Through an education policy, parents are assured that no matter what happens, their child will have funds for a college degree.

PhilamLife understands the real life needs of its customers and knows how important education is for its policyholders. The company has constantly delivered on its promises and has promptly released over P9 billion in education pay-out to its policyholders.

To make education payout release faster and more convenient for its policyholders, PhilamLife launched the Direct Deposit payment facility—through which Scholar Gold policyholders will get their policy benefits credited directly to their bank account.

As part of the campaign to promote the Direct Deposit facility, PhilamLife recently held an electronic raffle promo to the early enrolees of the Direct Deposit facility by giving away brand new Apple iPhone 6 to five (5) lucky Scholar Gold policyholders.

One of the winners, Mr. Juan Daoang, who came all the way from Pangasinan, shared that he has Philam Life education policies for his three children. When he learned about the new Direct Deposit facility from his last visit to the PhilamLife Customer Service Center in Dagupan City, he immediately applied for it. Now with the convenience of the Direct Deposit facility, Mr. Daoang will be able to withdraw tuition funds directly from his bank account, without having to travel great distances.

Another winner of the electronic raffle, Mrs. Felicitas Evangelista and her husband didn’t have a child of their own. Instead, Mrs. Evangelista invested in a PhilamLife Scholar Gold education policy for her nephew, Nathaniel, who is a third year Computer Engineering student at Bulacan State University. Because the Evangelista couple lived and worked in Manila and their nephew was in Bulacan, the responsibility of claiming the benefits went to Nathaniel’s grandfather. Since he is not the policyholder, he always went through the process of presenting authorization documents to claim the policy benefits. Now with the new Direct Deposit facility, the education benefits will be directly credited to Mrs. Evangelista’s bank account, which she can easily transmit to Nathaniel’s grandfather.

“We understand the real life needs of our customers so we are shifting to paperless and online transactions. Thanks to innovative technology, we are able to give our customers like Mr. Daoang and Mrs Evangelista a faster and more convenient way to receive their policy benefits,” said PhilamLife CEO Axel Bromley.
The Direct Deposit facility is just one of the ways that PhilamLife is undertaking to make financial planning easier for customers.

For more information about PhilamLife, please visit www.Philamlife.com

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Kids often find Science and Math to be challenging but students at Montessori de San Juan find it otherwise!

Every year, Montessori de San Juan conducts a Science and Math Fair at the school grounds. This gives the students an opportunity to showcase and display their interest and knowledge on the subjects. The Science and Math Fairs communicate the exciting possibilities studying these subject can open up. Science as a subject is expanding, and so reinforcing the student's love to explore the world around them brings out the fun!

Students from all levels put up their booths and call people over so they can explain their science experiments. Pre-schoolers excitedly explain what density is and demonstrate by dropping an egg in salt water. There were grade schoolers who talked about how different chemicals can produce different colors of flame when introduced to fire. It’s amazing how these concepts come easily to these students at such a young age, when some of the topics are introduced at higher levels in standardized schools!

Montessori de San Juan prides itself to be one of the pioneer schools that promote Montessori education. This is an education philosophy made popular by Maria Montessori in the early 19th century, where children’s learning abilities and learning speed are prioritized over anything else. Run by Ms. Sandy Arellano, she boasts that Montessori de San Juan not just implements the Montessori method of education, but also incorporates a more progressive approach to education.

“This way, the children can learn on their own pace,” Ms. Sandy explains. “We have students with different kinds of learning capabilities: some are visual learners, some are tactile learners, and our teachers make sure that all of the students are given the attention they need. This is also why our classes have only a few students, so the teachers can give each one the education they need.”

Montessori De San Juan now accepts applicants up to Senior High School. Enrollment for all levels for school year 2016-2017 is until May 31.

For more information about Montessori De San Juan, call 239-1102 / 725-6306, or visit their website at www.montessoridesanjuan.com

Monday, February 29, 2016

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